CHAPTER 1

AURELIA

Please, moon goddess. Do not forsake me. Beads of sweat trickled down my forehead as my eyelids burned with the tears I fought desperately to keep.

The air was thick with anticipation as I stood at the centre of the arena. Torches lined the walls, and the entire Nightfall pack watched in silence.

Tonight was supposed to be my night—the night I proved to everyone, especially my father, that I was worthy. The night I would shift into my wolf for the first time and claim my rightful place as beta beside my brother, Cronos.

People from far and wide had been invited to watch me transform  into a glorious wolf that’ll serve them and protect them as I had trained all my life to do.  But as the priests chanted their incantations, calling upon the moon and stars to bless me with the gift of my wolf, a sickening feeling , something like fear, settled in the pit of my stomach.

I felt nothing.

I clenched my fists, digging my nails into my palms to steady myself, waiting for the shift to begin, but there was only silence in my mind. No pull, no surge of power.

Heavens, what could this mean?

“Aurelia.” The chief priest’s voice broke through the silence, his uncertainty was evident in his voice.

He didn’t understand. Neither did I.

My brother’s shift had been one for the books, everyone expected the same thing from mine. I was, after all, my father’s daughter. But there was nothing like that.

I opened my eyes, and when I met those of the chief priest, my heart sank.

I risked a glance  toward my father, who stood watching me from his podium. Despite the darkness of the night, I could see the disappointment carefully etched on every line of his frown.

It didn’t take time for whispers to begin to fill the arena and soft murmurs to ripple through the crowd.

THERE’S NO WOLF?

SHE CANNOT SHIFT?

A burning shame rose in my chest, and I fought to keep the tears from falling. I had dreamed of this moment my entire life, trained tirelessly to be the beta my father needed, the beta my brother deserved. And now… now I had failed them.

Without another word, I turned and began my walk of shame out of the arena.

I barely made it out before the first tear slipped down my cheek. I didn’t stop walking until I found myself in the courtyard of the palace, my home.

I sank to my knees and pressing my hands against the cold brick of the fountain as I let my tears flow. There was no one here to see me break down. I could do so in peace.

“Aurelia.” My father’s voice was cold, devoid of any warmth or compassion. I looked up, meeting his gaze, but the disappointment in his eyes was unmistakable.

“Father, please…” My voice was barely a whisper, but he raised a hand, silencing me.

“You have disgraced us, disgraced me. A  princess without a wolf is no princess at all. You cannot protect our pack if you are not one of us.”

One of us? I was his daughter for heaven’s sake!

“But I can still serve as beta,” I pleaded, my voice breaking.

“I’ve trained my whole life for this! I was strong without the wolf. I am smart without…”

He shook his head, and my heart shattered into even tinier bits. Not that I had thought that was possible.

“A beta without a wolf is an omega, Aurelia. You would be a liability, a weakness. Nightfall doesn’t have the space for weaknesses. You know our history, you know this.”

I felt the ground shift beneath me, the weight of his words sinking in. An omega. The lowest rank, the one who serves, who obeys without question. I had spent my entire life striving to be worthy, to prove myself, and now he wanted to cast me aside, as if all my efforts meant nothing.

“I… I don’t understand,” I whispered, my voice trembling. “There has to be another way.”

“There is no other way.” The air of finality in his tone caused me to swallow hard. Anyone who knew Vaelor Nightfall, my father, knew better than to question his choices.

“I spoke with some of my lords back at your disgraceful ceremony. You’ll be married.”

My eyes widened.

“What?! Father…”

His frown grew deeper.

“You will become the lady of a noble house. Since your strength has failed you, your purity would have to account for something.”

By purity, he meant the fact that I was still a virgin. As princess of Nightfall, I owed it to the pack to keep myself for my mate. It was a thing of honour as the young ones looked up to me as a symbol of pride and prestige. All of that was gone.

“No,” I insisted.

“You can’t do this. I am your daughter, the princess of the Nightfall pack. I was meant to be beta.”

“You are nothing!” he yelled.

“Without your wolf, you have no place here.”

I looked away, feeling the tears spill over as I choked back a sob.

“Please, Father. Give me a chance. Let me prove myself.”

“There is nothing left to prove,” he said, dismissing me with a wave of his hand. “You will marry. That is final.”

Desperation clawed at me, and I turned to the one person who might understand, who might have a chance of changing his mind. My brother had stood beside my father all this while, but was yet to say a word.

“Cronos,” I pleaded.

“Please, talk to him. Make him see reason.”

Cronos’s gaze met mine, and for a moment, I thought I saw a flicker of sympathy. But it was gone as quickly as it appeared, as though it was never there.

My half brother and I had never been the closest of siblings, but he taught me and protected me when the need arose. Unlike my father, he never held it against me that I was the symbol of a love affair.

“I’m sorry, Aurelia,” he replied. Cronos never avoided anyone’s gaze. But tonight, he couldn’t look me in the eyes.

“ Father is right. Without your wolf, you cannot be beta. This marriage is the best option for you. We would make the necessary arrangements, and you would be wed the day after tomorrow. We need to let something else be the talk of the pack. Your failure to shift cannot trend any second more than it should.”

“Fine,” I whispered underneath my breath. There was no use fighting them with words.

“If that’s what you think is best, then I’ll go. But know this—I will not go quietly. I may be without a wolf, but I am still the princess of this pack. And I will not let you or anyone else take that from me.”

I returned to my room, and sank into my bed as I cried. I didn’t understand, couldn’t understand. My father was a wolf of valour, and my mother had been his trusted advisor whom he fell in love with. She had to be a strong wolf as well. So, what was wrong with me?

My door slowly creaked open, and I could tell from the soft air that filled the room that it was Diane, my best friend and hand maid, at the door.

She entered quietly.

“I heard what happened,” she said softly, coming to sit beside me. “I’m so sorry, Aurelia.”

I raised my head to  meet  her gaze, unable to hold back the tears that began to spill once more.

“He’s going to marry me off, Diane. Just because I couldn’t shift. He thinks I’m useless now, nothing more than a burden. He’s going to marry me off to some old lord with possibly three wives already. That’s the only way no one would expect anything of me.”

The more I recounted it, the more my heart shattered.

“If I… If I weren’t so—so pure, he might not see me as such a prize to hand off.”

Diane’s expression softened with sympathy, but then her eyes lit up, as if a thought had just come to her. “What if we change that?” she whispered.

I looked at her, eyes narrowed in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

She smiled.

“There’s a masquerade party in the pack tonight. A lot of people go—important people, and some who just want to let loose for the night. If you went there, no one would recognize you. You could… find someone. Someone handsome, maybe even someone you like. And you wouldn’t have to leave with this… expectation hanging over your head. That way, if you have sex for the first time, it won’t be with some old lord who you detest.”

My jaw dropped! It was a dangerous plan, but my body was the only thing I had control over. If I let someone take my virginity, my father would never allow himself to marry me off knowing the man would find out. At that point, I preferred to die as an unmarried princess than spend one night in the bedchamber of an old man my father’s age. Or worse, older.

“But… what if someone recognizes me?”

She shook her head. “No one will. Not with the right mask, the right clothes. Trust me, Aurelia. You deserve a chance to choose your own path, even if it’s just this one night.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I asked, still hesitant.

Diane nodded as she pulled me into an even tighter hug.

“You’ve spent your whole life living by your father’s rules, the pack’s rules, your brother’s rules, preparing for a role you’re no longer allowed to have. For once, do something for yourself. No one has to know, except you.”

I took a deep breath, feeling the weight of the decision before me. It went against everything I’d been raised to believe, everything my father had drilled into me. But I was no longer his pawn. I was a woman with a choice, and if this was the only way to take back control of my life, maybe it was worth the risk.

“All right,” I said, my voice steady as I looked at Diane. “Let’s do it.”

A small smile spread across her face as she squeezed my hand. “You won’t regret this, Aurelia. I’ll help you get ready.”

An hour and a half later, I was walking into a crowded club with a feather mask on my face, a red dress, and black heeled boots that added almost a foot to my height.

The smell of booze and sweat wafted into my nostrils, causing me to sneeze. I had never been to anything like this. A princess was never to be found in places like this. From the first step I took into the crowd, it was very easy to tell I didn’t belong there. I just hoped no one would notice that I…

“Are you lost, baby girl?”

An oddly familiar baritone came from over my shoulder. Before I could turn, rough fingers clasped around my right shoulder, cold shivers ran down my spine, and my feet glued themselves to that very spot, unmoving and unyielding.